Welcome to my blog! I wanted to start a blog to document the next ~7 amazing months of our lives as we prepare for baby Dregallo. I didn't want to be
*that* annoying girl on Facebook posting every.single.detail. that most people on Facebook don't care about! I know that {hopefully!} all of you have some interest in updates so here we are!
So... let's start from the beginning. The night of the Sandy Hook shootings (December 15, 2012), I COULD NOT contain my emotions while watching the news coverage. I think most of you know I am usually an emotional person... but I was literally sobbing for about 2 hours straight. {Enter hint #1 I thought I was preggers}. The next morning, I decided to take a pregnancy test (we had been trying to get pregnant and I was tracking my ovulation and knew when I would be able to start seeing a positive test) and had one slightly positive. It was verrry faint, so I decided to take another and it was negative. Hmm... I was mildly excited at this point because up until then each month only produced clearly negative test results. I decided not to tell Matt and wait a few more days to test again. That Sunday, I came down with the flu. I was
mis-er-a-ble. I went to CVS Minute Clinic to get some medication and told the doctor I thought I was pregnant to make sure any medication I was taking would be safe. I was given a doctor's note to stay home from work until at least Wednesday. Monday morning, I decided to test again. I took one and waited patiently for the little pink lines to show up... the first line showed up (the control line) and I thought ah well, another month with no results. I then noticed the positive line started turning pinker and pinker... I couldn't believe it. It was definitely positive! I was so shocked I had to take another... and again, definitely positive!
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| It's positive! |
I decided to wait until Matt got home from work to share the news. I had been mulling over a few cute ideas on how to tell Matt (all from
Pinterest of course!) but at this moment I was still SO sick I just didn't have the energy to do any of them. So, I got out a blank card and wrote "I"m gonna be a big sister". When Matt got home, I had to tell him right away. I told him to sit down and gave him the card and told him it was from Callie (our dog). He opened it, and asked "are you trying to tell me you want another dog?!" and then he finally realized what I was trying to tell him. He jumped up and hugged me and of course I couldn't contain my tears. He wanted to go on Facebook right then and there to announce the wonderful news but of course we had to wait a while to make sure everything was okay.
The following weekend was Christmas, and I was unsure if I should tell our families as it was still so early (I was only 4 weeks along). I decided with it being my favorite Holiday and of course being me (and unable to keep a secret for very long at all!) we had to tell our families. We made picture frames that we gave our parents that said "You're gonna be grandparents!" and had them open them. My parents said they thought it was going to be a printable from
Pinterest... Sunny and Joe (my in-laws) opened theirs and said "Well when?!"... both moments we will never forget. :)
At 8 weeks I was able to finally see the doctor. The last 4 weeks were
agony for me because even though at that point I had taken like 6 positive tests (I wanted to be sure!!) I still wanted to SEE the baby to be absolutely sure. I had been cramping a bit until then but no morning sickness (luckily) so didn't really
feel pregnant yet. We first had the consultation with the nurse to go over their practice procedures, when I would see the doctor and for what, what to do and what not to do, go over our family histories... all that fun stuff. Our next appointment wasn't for another 2 hours so we got lunch nearby and then went back for the appointment with the doctor. It was still early so we were unsure if we would have an ultrasound... but the doctor confirmed that would be happening today :) It was
SO amazing to see our little blob on the screen and then actually hear their strong, healthy heartbeat. Baby Dregallo was definitely in there and was alive and healthy - what a relief!
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| Baby Dregallo at 8 weeks |
At this point we were ready to start telling close friends. For the ones we couldn't tell in person we wanted to do something creative... I found this idea from
Pinterest and we texted it to our friends.
So... fast forward to today. I am 11 weeks along and just had my second doctor's appointment on Thursday. I knew going in (thanks to Lauren!) that I
might be able to hear baby's heartbeat with a
doppler this time but didn't want to get my hopes up. They took my weight and thank goodness I have only gained 1.5 lbs... not a heffer just yet! The doctor put the doppler instrument on my belly and after about 30 seconds found baby's strong, healthy heartbeat. Once again, joy and relief :) baby's heartbeat was 166 which is pretty high. The
old wive's tale is that higher heart rate = girl. Either way, we will be happy as long as the baby is healthy.
My next appointment is at 15 weeks and I will go in for some blood tests to see how baby is doing and find out if they are high risk for Down Syndrome. At 18 weeks I will go in for another ultrasound and will *hopefully* be able to find out the gender!
I've been feeling really good up to this point. No morning sickness (knock on wood) and no complications. I've not noticed any weird cravings yet (although I could eat pizza and ice cream all day every day) but have had some food aversions (boo no more Jarlsberg cheese dip for me!) and have noticed my sense of smell is very strong.
Sorry this post is so long and detailed... I wanted to make sure I wrote down every moment before pregnancy brain starts to kick in (which I think it has already). I'm not showing just yet but in a week or two I will start taking belly photos and will be sharing those along with all the other fun details. Hope you enjoyed our story and thanks for stopping by!
